Tuesday, January 11, 2011

Communication

How do you communicate?

7% is verbal
38% is pitch, tone, volume
55% body language

I am currently in Canmore hanging out with my friend Amy, who was actually one of my wonderful roommates while I worked for Disney Cruise Line. She has been here for a little over 2 years now and she gave birth to one of the cutest little boys I have ever met seven months ago. He is a mover and a shaker! He crawls around everywhere and is perfectly content to just hang out in his play area for hours at a time.

Amy has created this square area with foam tiles for him to hang out in and there must be about 20 toys in there with him. He pushes buttons and tosses things and makes noise and you can just tell that he is loving every minute of it. When he looks at you for the first couple of seconds he's not entirely sure what to make of you and then if you smile at him he gives you this huge toothless grin right back. He's gonna be a real charmer!

This morning though Levi was not doing so well. His tummy seemed to be hurting him. When you are 7 months old how do you communicate with those big people that take care of you? Your language skills are not exactly able to really explain what's going on so you resort to crying and screaming, because you know it makes noise and it gets a reaction. Hopefully those big people are smart enough to just know what's wrong with you and what you need or else you may just have to keep screaming.

Here's something I have noticed. Some people as they grow up still do not develop the language to really communicate how they are feeling about something. Not to say that they do not speak, they do- they just have a harder time articulating what they are saying and/or they don't even want to share. There are people who still communicate by yelling instead of having a calm conversation. If pitch and tone is 38% of how we communicate saying, "I love you" softly would make someone's heart melt, whereas saying "I love you" when yelling could make someone cringe.

I am lucky enough to have had life experiences and to have developed my language skills beyond that of an infant. This is a reminder to me that I can use them! I know there are times where I could easily be communicating much more effectively and something stops me. Therefore- note to self; be aware of how I feel and how to communicate it.

Thanks Levi!

Friday, January 7, 2011

Et Bon

What a feeling. I am currently sitting in the chalet, upstairs at Mont Habitant- the ski hill that I learned how to ski on at the age of 4, watching both skiers and snowboarders come down. The sun is just peaking through the clouds and there are VERY light flurries descending upon the hill. The snow conditions are good, a decent mix now of groomed and natural after a good number of people have come down. The wind is there but it's easy to handle with all your gear on. All in all a pretty ideal day to be up.

It is now 11:15 am and the hill opened at 9. Therefore you are probably wondering what the fuck I am doing inside. Well I am already injured. Not majorly or anything but enough that if I were to keep going I could do some serious damage to my arm and that would not be pleasant. Therefore I made the choice to stop, even though I was only out there for an hour and a half, and only got to do one full run down the hill... we started on the bunny hill.

I am proud of myself though. I can get down a hill without any major issues doing what I know how to do. So far all the hard falls I took today were when I was pushing myself out of my comfort zone and attempting to get better at snowboarding. You see I began skiing at the age of 4 and I even won the gold in my ski class when I was 8. However we stopped coming up around that time and my ski skills are adequate to get me down and get me down pretty gracefully at that. When I was in grade 9 I decided to try my hand at snowboarding. I did it on a trip to Mont St. Anne and was pretty bad. Not awful but not awesome. I skied a few times after that, since I was more comfortable doing that and I owned equipment. Last winter I took my brother's board and came up to this very hill.

I had magically improved! 9 years later I could now get down a hill successfully on my heals and I managed to get onto my toes a few times. I decided to buy myself a board, bindings and boots- got them at a clearance sale for $172!!! This morning we began on the bunny hill. I was good. I went down on my heals. Went down on my toes. Went to carve and feel. HARD. On my butt and I'm pretty sure I have bruised my tail bone. Then we got up on the actual hill- small hill but still the hill that requires you to take the real chair lift up. About half way down I fall on my knees and put my arms out to brace myself from falling flat on my face. Kill my arm. I don't even understand how much it hurt. I am 99% sure it is not broken though because I actually have full range of motion still. When I bend my arm all the way up though it's painful and I can't really put any weight on it.

Hence why I am now sitting indoors writing this post rather than continuing to push myself to learn and get better at boarding. For $20 a day though I am happy I got an hour and a half in and I am prepared to get back on the hill when I get back into town in February! Today I am thankful for my very patient brothers who are really good and could easily have done 10 runs by now... and yet they are each teaching friends and helping them learn and get down the hill. It really is pretty amazing to watch them in their gifts.

Et bon, in the end I have had a good morning.

Thursday, January 6, 2011

Nowhere

I had established a little while ago that I want to live in the middle of nowhere and I believe I have officially decided that this is a great idea!

While in Hilton Head, although it's not in the middle of nowhere by any means it is a very small, quite and quaint area. It's a beach and golf area and therefore very relaxing and conducive to creativity- for me anyway.

Now I am up north, or what we call up north because it's north of Montreal, at Geny's cottage. I am sitting upstairs looking out at the frozen snow covered lake and writing this post. It is snowing ever so lightly, which just adds a magical aspect to the place.

There's something about being outside of a major site and closer to nature. The more connected I feel to nature the more creative I feel. The more I want to write, or craft and read. This then makes me really want to live in the middle of nowhere. I know what my backyard looks like. The house itself is still kinda fuzzy- I only know that I have a bay window I can sit on in my bedroom looking out on the back yard...

My backyard has a large wooden deck with a huge barbecue (basically it's an outdoor kitchen) and then there's an in-ground pool with grass behind that- a large grass area you could play touch football or soccer (not the size of a whole field but big enough to run around in). Then it's woods. It's a beautiful forest that you walk about 10 feet into and you are at a babbling brook or stream- a body of water that moves and therefore makes noise that you can actually hear from the house. From the deck you look out and see the forest and mountains. It's so beautiful.

I have two visions of the place. One is packed with people. There are people everywhere in the yard laughing, swimming, playing, cooking, drinking and just having a fabulous time. It's super social. The other vision is super quite. There's me and maybe one other person but we do our own thing much of the day. I talk walks, write, read, swim, lay in the hammock and cook. We sit down and eat in front of a fire and then read on the couch at night. It's just really relaxing.

So ya I have officially decided that this is what I want. I want to be able to live in the middle of nowhere. About an hour away from a city is good so that when I feel like being out on the town I have somewhere do go. Wonder where this ideal location is... I'll find it. Or it'll come to me. Anyone got any ideas? And once I find it, wanna come visit? Or maybe help me build it?! :)

Have a fabulous day! Go out and enjoy nature. Or stay in and observe the great outdoors. Just appreciate it and be thankful for it. :)

Monday, January 3, 2011

19

I love hanging out with fabulous people and that's exactly what I got to do New Years Eve 2011!!!

Departed from Hilton Head at 1:30pm December 30th, 2010, we drove all night and arrived in our drive way at 10:30am on December 31st, 2010. At this point I went into crazy mode. Cleaning, organizing, decorating the house and picking up more groceries. Much of it had already been done by my awesome brothers and adopted sister, Tina, but we still had enough to keep us busy till even after our first guests arrived at 2:45pm.

We had full families and individuals, we had boys and girls, we had young and more experienced people, but mostly we had a GREAT time!

We sat 19 people at our table for dinner. The feast included turkey, sausages, rice, mashed potatoes, 3 different salads, cranberry sauce and bread. The meal was delicous but I honestly was just so happy with having all of the amazing people sitting at the table with me that the meal could've been McDonald's and I still would've thought it was amazing.

We played Catch Phrase- awesome game- which had us rolling on the floor laughing a few times! We watched the ball drop. We drank. We talked. We shared an experience. This new years really is one I will remember for years to come.

Thank you so much to each of you for spending it with me. I am so grateful for the extended Buna family. And the immediate Buna family.



Mom- you are strong and beautiful and an inspiration for me to always stand up for what I believe in.
Dad- you are so caring and generous and I look to you to remind to always do what my heart tells me to.
Chris- you are so confident in who you are and what you are about, I look to you for strength.
Seb- you remind me to always have fun and to just enjoy life and everything that happens!

Love you xoxoxox